Organic molecules with long π-conjugation have received much attention as advanced materials and as the building blocks of nano-scale devices for use in solar cells, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic field effect transistors (OFETs), organic light emitting transistors (OLETs), batteries, electro-luminescent material and sensors. Stability, good solid state packing, processability, rigidity/planarity, high fluorescence, and a HOMO-LUMO gap in the semiconductor region (which also leads to absorption/emission in the visible range) are among the main requirements for useful advanced organic electronic materials to be applied as functional materials in organic electronic nano-technologies. Those materials are also used for various industrial applications such as antistatic coatings, dyes or pigments.
The conjugated chains and the electrical and optical properties of these polymers are influenced by the electronegativity of the heteroatom.
The synthesis of polyfuran by electrochemical means requires high voltage for the electropolymerization (1.8-2.5V) which results in irreversible oxidation of the polymer. Electropolymerization process, using terfuran provides milder polymerization due to its lower oxidation potential compared to furan.
Chemical polymerization of furan using a number of oxidizing agents using oxygen and a Ni catalyst, ferric chloride, and potassium ferricyanide resulted in only -polymers of poor quality resulting in low conjugation length. Another oxidizing agent which was used is pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC) resulting also in poor quality polymers.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present application to provide high quality and stable oligofurans and polyfurans.